Last week, Global Fruit started their 2021 summer campaign with cherries grown in the South Okanagan valley, but the company has big plans for the late-season cherries that make up most of their volume. “This year, about 75 percent of our volume is expected to be available for shipping after Aug 1,” says Richard Isaacs, Commercial Director with the company.
“We are a vertically-integrated cherry specialist with orchards and offices in Creston British Columbia, 500 kilometers northeast of Wenatchee,” he adds. “We have chosen to focus on growing premium blush cherries on our own farms, but we are also the exclusive marketing partner for many of the red cherry growers in that region of the Kootenays - traditionally the latest area for cherries in the northern hemisphere. Our long cherry season starts in the third week of June in the south Okanagan, then following harvest up the valley to Kelowna and further north, and eventually finishing early September in the Creston area.”
Auto filler Unitec line and pouch bag with cherries.
Marketing 20 million lbs.
Since the company was established in 2002, Global Fruit has been known as a pioneer in the BC cherry industry, overseeing the arrival of the first Unitec optical cherry grader ever to be installed in North America. Today, the company works with multiple packing houses in BC, all of whom operate the latest Unitec Cherry Vision 3 technology, with a combined total of 72 lanes.
“In 2007 when the owner Andre Bailey took over the company, Global Fruit brought around 300,000 lbs of cherries to market, and this year we are forecasting our largest crop ever with 20 million lbs,” Isaacs mentioned. “This incredible growth has been driven by a core group of committed growers who have continued to invest every year, planting more late varieties, and expanding their packing facilities. We take our hats off to all the growers in our group for their commitment to continuous improvement and ceaseless energy,” Isaacs said.
Unitec Cherry Vision 3.
Post-harvest protocols
BC cherries have always benefitted from a unique climate that creates large, firm, and flavorful fruit. However, as consumers around the world have become ever-more demanding, Global Fruit has responded by focusing on critical post-harvest protocols.
To maintain optimum quality, picking takes place early in the day while it is still cool. “The fruit is hydrocooled immediately and loaded on refrigerated trucks to the packing houses where it is held in high humidity cold stores,” Isaacs explained. The cherries are packed the same day or the next morning on the Unitec optical grading and packing lines. As soon as the cherries come off the packing line, the finished pallets are cooled in forced-air blast coolers and shipped to customers around the world within 24 to 36 hours after the fruit was picked from the tree.
Rainier cherries being picked at Andre Bailey’s farm in Creston, BC in 2020.
“Every single step in the supply chain is critical, and it takes a huge amount of planning,” according to Isaacs. “We work incredibly closely with all our growers and packing facilities at every stage to ensure all the goodness that nature provides is maintained all the way to the final consumers who seek out our top-quality Canadian cherries in their local store wherever they may be in the world.”
For more information:
Richard Isaacs
Commercial Director
Global Fruit
Tel: (+1) 250-428-2320
[email protected]
www.globalfruit.org